The fastest way to slow a business down is to make every decision yourself.
I have seen it in country managers, and early on I saw it in myself. Every trade term, every hire, every event plan waiting for one signature. The team learns to wait. The market does not.
The opposite is just as risky. A leader who hands everything away is not delegating. That leader has left the room.
Drucker made the point that effective executives make few decisions, and make them well. In my experience, that means sorting decisions into levels.
The daily ones go to the people closest to them. Call plans, territory choices, trade terms within the limits we agreed.
The bigger ones are delegated with a check-in. Budgets, hires, launch plans. They decide. I review, at a point we agreed before they started.
A small number stay with me. Strategy. Key appointments. The standards the team works by.
And one thing never moves: when a delegated decision goes wrong, it is still mine. I back my managers in public and coach them in private.
The habit I work hardest to avoid is delegating something and then quietly taking it back. Once is enough for a manager to stop deciding.
“If every decision needs you, the business moves at your speed.”
Lesson 7 of 15 in Step 7: Leading the leadership team, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.